I am thinking of using either Emacs or Vim, but I'm worried about privacy. I don't want people to spy on my activities, collect information about my habits, and steal my code. Does Emacs and Vim collect telemetry data? They seem to be unusually quiet about telemetry, with no mention of it in their documentation. I can't find their privacy policy either. It seems that Emacs and Vim are hiding something. Can I can trust these text editors? At least VS Code is honest about its spying. How do I disable telemetry in Emacs and Vim?
Just read the source code.
Vim is ugandaware, I wouldn't trust it.
I am surprised those applications use telemetry at all. What's the goal there? It doesn't really make sense to increase sales of a free product...
Vim is ugandaware, I wouldn't trust it.
I am boycotting Vim until it prioritizes the needy children of America. Why focus so much attention on a random country halfway across the world when there are so many people on one's doorstep? The Uganda license should be replaced with the America license. The Ugandaware license shamelessly begs for donations, and says that "the money goes to Uganda", which is an unacceptable method for encouraging capital outflows from America.
None of this inspires any confidence in the software.
>>5
Vim will be blamed for the weak dollar.
I am surprised those applications use telemetry at all. What's the goal there? It doesn't really make sense to increase sales of a free product...
The users are the product. How do you think Emacs Inc. and Vim Corporation have survived into the 21st century, while gushing profits for their steakholders? They are collecting data from the users of their "free" software, and selling the data to advertisers.
>>4
As far as I know, they don't. But there are software that do, and the justification is usually that the developers need to know which features are actually used to be able to decide what to work on and what to throw out.
>>8 That is hilarious- imagine either Bram or Core Emacs saying "We want to monitor user activity so can decide which features to work on and which to get rid of."
>>9
Debian and Firefox have telemetry (disabled by default). What is stopping Emacs and Vim from collecting telemetry data? They could even sell the telemetry data to advertisers to fund the development of the project. It's a win-win for everyone involved. Advertisers get their data, the project gets funding, the users get the features they need.
I didn't know that Emacs and Vim had telemetry enabled by default and send data to the vast ether by default.
It was more the idea that Bram or Core Emacs would implement some feature (like telemetry) "to decide which features to work on and which to get rid of" when both seem to value stability so highly that plenty of people of people get frustrated at how hard it is to change anything.
>>11 That is a thing that I still don't know.
>>11,13
They don't have telemetry.
(setq url-privacy-level 'paranoid) (url-setup-privacy-info) is relevant, but there is no telemetry in GNU Emacs that I'm aware of.
>>10
I support that. There should be a banner (and maybe a popup every thirty minutes or so) on every instance unless the user makes a donation.
>>16
Even better, the GNU Emacs project could sell advertising space. Microsoft could fund the development of GNU Emacs in exchange for permanently displaying "Try VS Code now!" in the Emacs modeline.
>>17
Stunningly brilliant. Why exactly aren't you their PR guy yet?
>>12
Perhaps Neovim could add telemetry, since it is not bound by the old-school mentality of Vim.
However, I wouldn't trust Neovim. It looks like a front organization created by Emacs zealots to sow discord in the Vim community. They have successfully created a schism in Vim. They are using divide and conquer tactics to catch up with the popularity of Vim, and to ensure Emacs' long-term victory in the editor wars.
>>19
Bram Moolenaar should change as many things as possible in Vim to break compatibility with Neovim. He should add more features to Vim that are fundamentally incompatible with Neovim. This will destroy the Neovim fork, and reunite Vim. Down with the Neovim traitors!